michelleobama

not a bad size, hopefully people keep contributing

Hey guys, wcinsects.com completely covered this. They wrote an article that was reviewed by the Senior Entomologist PhD at USDA APHIS PPQ. Pretty much everything is explained here, it is the most verified article on this topic currently on the internet: http://www.wcinsects.com/us-insect-regulations

So wcinsects.com recently did an article about the world record hercules beetle Dynastes hercules hercules bred in Japan by a famous breeder known as HirokA: http://www.wcinsects.com/world-record-beetle-breeding 171 millimeters!!! www.wcinsects.com also has a small database of beetle sizes and larval weights that is slowly growing over the months. If anyone has some data they'd like to upload, it would be cool to expand the database. The more information the merrier! Cheers. Photographs are copyrighted property.

DM'ed you about the data I have found lots of data actually ?

That would be excellent, if I manage to construct some kind of graph, set of equations or conclusion, the names/credit of each contributor will be included. I may have some data for harlequin beetles as well

For the Phileurus truncatus, do you have sizes for the adults? That is very interesting data, I appreciate your contribution. When do you think your Dynastes tityus will pupate? I think it might be a good idea to track larvae individually and then use all of their individual values to calculate an average instead of a range. You could also indicate which data points are male and which are female, a variable that apparently may be important in predicting adult size, as your data suggests for one species

So, I saw this thread http://beetleforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=2274 which really got me thinking about larval weight vs adult size ratios/comparisons. I think it would be really interesting if there was some sort of species chart that related L3 weight at pupation to adult length. Does such a chart already exist, possibly in countries like Japan or Germany, where the hobby is much more common on a national level? If not, it may be a worthwhile project for breeders to post recorded measurements so that others can get an idea of the adult sizes they can expect. It might be a good idea to start off with one species that lots of people have and then add other species to the chart in the same manner. A chart would be nice to have for reference, but the mathematical relationship between larval weight and adult size is even more interesting to me. I would expect a logarithmic trend if the relationship was graphed, as each species likely has a maximum adult size that it can reach (or, maybe not. this is just a speculation. it would be fascinating if the relationship was linear although my experience in biological studies suggests that most "higher" animals have some kind of biological limitation to size). If enough data points were taken and the relationship was graphed, there would be a mathematical expression that could predict adult size as a function of larval weight. Constants, such as slope and y-intercepts, would be defined for each species. So you could either look at the chart or plug your weight into an equation. Obviously, the equation/chart will not be 100% accurate, but the more data points that go into it the more accurate it will become. It seems pretty simple and easy to do, actually. I think some US native species that are commonly bred in culture, such as Dynastes granti or Dynastes tityus, would be good candidates for this project. If I get my hands on some L3's before my own pairs produce them, I will post larval weights and adult sizes. Cheers

I've had mold grow on specimens I was keeping in a cooled container due to excess moisture. If your case is anything like mine, most of the growth was over the head/antennae. A gentle scrubbing motion with a wet toothbrush, followed by a gentle and light rinse under running water got most of it off for me. But you have to be very careful, as the drier the specimen at this point, the more susceptible it is to mechanical damage. Antennae are very fragile and snap off easily, as you probably know, so the only way I could fix the mold off of them is by breaking them off in a controlled fashion, cleaning the specimen, and super glueing them back on. There are probably easier ways, but this method worked for me.

From the looks of the reviews on his shop, Muddy Mire has been selling exotic larvae on etsy which is pretty illegal in the U.S.. Not sure if he knows that.

I agree. After doing some research, I found Muddy Mire's shop on Etsy where he is also selling substrate, not sure why he didn't cite it here. He's selling substrate he found in the woods, while wcinsects offers "fermented" substrate. Fermented substrate promises nutrients from microbes and also guarantees partial lignin/cellulose digestion (anyone want to confirm this for me?) prior to larval ingestion, while substrate randomly found from the woods might not offer as much. Forest-found substrate usually works fine, though, from my personal experience.

Do you mind elaborating on what that is supposed to mean?

What variety of kinshi is for native beetles?

Well, it's cheaper than the substrate you would buy here http://shop.bugsincyberspace.com/Beetle-Substrate-bic797.htm not to mention that it's also better as I ordered from bugsincyberspace once and got a package of a few sticks and leaves. I agree, however, people should make their own.

You can buy "fermented" substrate for larvae in 1 L and 5 L quantities on www.wcinsects.com it's a pretty new source to buy beetle substrate so I'd like to hear some reviews